Mills first Madison home was on the square at the corner of Monona Avenue & West Main Street.

Later he owned extensive lands on the northeast shore of Lake Monona; his magnificent mansion,
Park Place still stands. He eventually sold it and
moved back downtown because his wife Maria didn't like living so far from town.

Reached Madison on June 10, 1837, only hours after the workers who would build Madisonís first
capitol building, and stayed the rest of his life

Mills was Madison's first entrepreneur. The day of his arrival he contracted with some of the
workers to build him a store, then headed to Galena to acquire goods to fill it

Appointed the first justice of the peace in 1837, he was elected county commissioner in 1839
and later clerk of court

Mills introduced the bill that became the charter of the UW; he was a member of the first
board of regents, purchasing the site of the university and supervising the erection of its first
building, North Hall.

He was a trustee for the State Hospital for the Insane,
a paymaster general during the Civil War, a founder of the Wisconsin Argus newspaper in 1844, and a
director of the Madison & Beloit Railroad and the Madison & Portage Railroad.